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Charlie Peace

This page lists novels that feature the policeman Charlie Peace.

 

Charlie Peace: Novels

Death and the Chaste Apprentice

Robert Barnard

Collins

1989

A Charlie Peace novel.

"The Ketterick Festival revolves around the Saracen's Head, a Jacobean inn with its inn-yard and balconies miraculously preserved intact, due to the sloth of successive landlords. Here in festival time are performed the lesser-known masterpieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. This year it is The Chaste Apprentice of Bowe (a play of uncertain authorship, since no one owned up at the time). But the actors find that the Saracen's Head has been transformed by its new landlord - an Australian know-all with an insatiable curiosity and an instinct for power. The loathsome Des's activities bring him into conflict with actors, committee, even the performers of Adelaide di Birckenhead, the little-known Donizetti opera that is the other lynchpin of the Festival programme. So adept is Des at fomenting friction and ferreting in the undergrowth of private lives that it is not surprising that it all ends in biers."
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A Fatal Attachment

Robert Barnard

Bantam

1992

A Charlie Peace novel.

"Lydia Perceval was - apparently - a charming and gifted woman. As a successful biographer, she led a privileged and comfortable life in her well-ordered, luxurious country-cottage. She felt terribly sorry for her sister, married to an unemployed drunk, mother of two sons, both of whom had loved their adorable Aunt Lydia much more than their parents. Lydia had a way with young people, particularly boys. She knew how to bring out the best in them. As it happened, her sister's two boys had proved something of a disappointment …. And then she met the Bellingham boys. It was like a reply of the past, two bright young boys, one dark, one fair, just waiting for Lydia to take over their lives. But before she could do so, Lydia was strangled. The motives were subtle, obscure. And there were very few clues. But as Superintendent Mike Oddie started his investigations, he began to suspect that quite a few people hadn't liked the charming Lydia Perceval at all."
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A Hovering of Vultures

Robert Barnard

Bantam

1993

A Charlie Peace novel.

"Many years ago, Yorkshire writer Joshua Sneddon killed his more successful sister with an ax, then shot himself in the head. Now a yahoo entrepreneur has taken a sudden interest in the obscure literary Sneddons, and Detective Constable Charlie Peace wonders why."
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The Bad Samaritan

Robert Barnard

Collins

1995

A Charlie Peace novel.

"Rosemary Sheffield has a sort of "reverse epiphany" one day while walking in the park: she no longer believes in God. This sudden loss of faith is at first entirely liberating, but the situation gradually becomes more complicated. Rosemary is, after all, the beloved wife of the vicar at St. Saviour's parish. A storm of controversy erupts in her husband's church congregation, but Rosemary, with the words "I do not believe," leaves behind the scandal and gossip for a seaside sojourn in Scarborough. Here she meets Stanko, a Bosnian refugee who illegally entered the country. But what begins as a supportive friendship launches an ungodly chain of events-and Rosemary soon finds herself back at home caught up in a murder investigation."
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No Place of Safety

Robert Barnard

Collins

1997

A Charlie Peace novel.

"The disappearance from school of two apparently unconnected teenagers worries DC Charlie Peace, until he discovers that they are both working at a hostel for homeless street kids. Peace knows the life and crimes of the people these two are trying to help, and decides that, for the moment, they are safe. But will Peace have cause to regret his decision? After all, just who is the man running the hostel? And how nasty is the local opposition to the place likely to become? As the pair continue their good work, the situation at the hostel becomes even more fraught with the appearance of an Asian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. And it isn't long before a murderous attack seems about to put an end to the whole project."
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The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori

Robert Barnard

Collins

1998

A Charlie Peace novel.

"The body of a young man, almost naked, in the car park behind one of Haworth’s many eating establishments marks the beginning of the case, and it is his identity that is the first puzzle for DC Charlie Peace and his superior Detective Superintendent Oddie. But before long the puzzle that most concerns them is the nature of the close-knit artistic community where Declan O’Hearn had acted as odd-job boy. The little knot of people seem to be united less by their ability as painters than by a common worship of the distinguished artist Ranulph Byatt, who has not only brought them together, but seems to prefer the adulation of his inferiors to the judgement of his equals. Peace, searching for clues, soon starts to wonder if there isn’t a sinister reason for this. And as the search for the killer gathers pace, Peace and Oddie uncover a series of dark secrets on the harsh Haworth landscape."
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Unholy Dying

Robert Barnard

Collins

2000

A Charlie Peace and Mike Oddie novel.

"Do Father Pardoe and Julie protest too much? Why did Julie's parents throw her out and disown her? Is she really as bad as they say? And what, exactly, does Cosmo Horrocks hear in that London-to-Leeds dining car that makes him tingle with excitement? A tale of chastity besmirched? This story could make his year. But will it lead to tragedy? And, if so, whose? When Inspector Mike Oddie and Sergeant Charlie Peace are called in to investigate a murder, they are saddened and surprised by the raw emotions-the hate, the fear-they find in the outwardly peaceful town of Shipley. There may be only one killer, but there are many others who must share the town's guilt and, perhaps, one day start the process of healing. Rich with eccentric characters, crisp dialogue, stylish prose, and perceptive insights into human nature, Unholy Dying is vintage Barnard, acknowledged master of suspense."
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The Bones in the Attic

Robert Barnard

Collins

2001

A Charlie Peace novel.

"Moving into an upmarket new home in Leeds, rising radio star Matt Harper is shocked to find the skeleton of a small child in the attic. His grisly discovery takes him back to the summer of 1969, when he lived with his aunt only a few streets away, reawakening dim, disquieting memories from his childhood. While Detective Charlie Peace heads up the nominal police investigation into the bones, Matt revisits the past in an attempt to solve the mystery himself. Tracking down the other members of a gang of local children he'd once belonged to, he gradually unearths a shared secret that has laid buried ever since. Were the bones in the attic the result of a tragic accident, or has time concealed a more sinister truth?"
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A Fall from Grace

Robert Barnard

Allison & Busby

2006

A Charlie Peace novel.

"DC Charlie Peace wants to begin a new life with his family in the tranquil village of Slepton Edge. His new life, however, will test his professional integrity, for when a mysterious death disturbs the village calm, the network of neighbourhood gossip emerges as both his greatest ally and crucial obstacle to solving the case."
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The Killings on Jubilee Terrace

Robert Barnard

Allison & Busby

2009

A Charlie Peace novel.

"Meet the cast of Jubilee Terrace, one of the most popular soap operas on British television. When one of the cast members dies suddenly of a heart attack, those in the production team are quick to make the most of the opportunity, making plans to bring in an old character for a major plotline. But when a suspicious letter emerges raising questions about the supposed 'natural death' and an arson attack kills two more of the cast, it would appear something more sinister is afoot. The script-writers are clearly not the only ones capable of killing off characters."
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A Charitable Body

Robert Barnard

Scribners

2012

A Charlie Peace novel.

"When his wife, Felicity, is named a trustee of one of England's distinguished estates, Yorkshire cop Charlie Peace discovers an ugly family rivalry linked to the estate and the discovery of a body in a nearby lake."
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Last updated March 2018